Microsoft's partner group manager was interviewed by PCR, a trade publication for computer resellers, and blurted that the company had tried to "create a Mac look and feel" with the Windows 7 operating system. A member of the Windows team quickly struck back on the team's blog, calling the remark "inaccurate and uninformed."

Aldous is in charge of the unit that deals with the company's resellers, which is highly significant to Microsoft as the software behemoth does not directly retail any of its products. In an interview mainly consisting of policy issues having to do with the relationship of Microsoft to the people that put the company's product on their shelves, Aldous made the following assertion.

One of the things that people say an awful lot about the Apple Mac is that the OS is fantastic, that it’s very graphical and easy to use. What we’ve tried to do with Windows 7 – whether it’s traditional format or in a touch format – is create a Mac look and feel in terms of graphics

Aldous rallied, though, returning to the party line about Windows 7's virtues. "We've significantly improved the graphical user interface, but it's built on that very stable core Vista technology, which is far more stable than the current Mac platform," Aldous said.

The smackdown arrived late yesterday. "Unfortunately, this came from a Microsoft employee who was not involved in any aspect of designing Windows 7," said Brandon LeBlanc, a company spokesman who authors most of the Windows 7 blog posts. "I hate to say this about one of our own, but his comments were inaccurate and uninformed."

Observers have noted look-and-feel similarities between Windows 7's revamped task bar and the Mac OS X dock. Computerworld highlighted some strengths of the taskbar in its "OS Deathmatch," saying that it is better at displaying thumbnails of an application's open windows. Computerworld did, however, give the win to Mac OS X, asserting that "no one beats Apple when it comes to design."

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I was wondering how windows finally got it right. I'm mean seriously, you can't say that some of the design behind Windows 7 wasn't influenced by OSX. The taskbar doesn't look like any Windows systems I've ever used before...

I see the similarities in the task bar too. Microsoft totally copied OSX on this one. they copied the big bar, they got their round logo on it, they copied the preview feature, they copied how you can see the status of your file transfer on the task bar and everything, and a few others. Apple should really go to court over this

Has no one noticed that over the years since 3.11 of Windows that their logo is slowly rotating and presently is starting to look like the OSX 'X' more than ever!

As far as I see Windows 7, I just think that this is the system that will bleed more users to OS X due to similarities of the visuals of the OS's, Once people start to understand OS X is superior and far more stable they'll just jump ship on to the OSX wagon.

I was wondering how windows finally got it right. I'm mean seriously, you can't say that some of the design behind Windows 7 wasn't influenced by OSX. The taskbar doesn't look like any Windows systems I've ever used before...

The taskbar looks almost exactly like quicklaunch from the days of XP and Vista with the exception that the icons are much bigger by default (this can be changed under settings if you so chose) and that you open programs are now merged with the task bar and no longer their own bar. Two things were merged into one... truly the biggest difference.

Originally Posted by symondavis

As far as I see Windows 7, I just think that this is the system that will bleed more users to OS X due to similarities of the visuals of the OS's, Once people start to understand OS X is superior and far more stable they'll just jump ship on to the OSX wagon.

Yet another person who seems to get all of his/her information from the Mac commercials

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I once prayed to God for an iPhone, but quickly found out He didn't work that way...so I stole an iPhone and prayed for His forgiveness.

A dog is the only thing on earth that loves you more than you love yourself. - Josh Billings

Comon guys microsft copiying mac or not, they have been the leader on sales for years after years, I'm not saying that i don't like mac because if I did I'd be lieying, but ms also has a lot of things not available for mac, but if tha software it's made for mac is more stable. so there is a balance in between both, OSX and windows7.

I was a Microsoft fan once. I used XP and Vista and every so often, I had to format because the performance gradually got worse and worse.

I made an impulse buy and bought my first MacBook, being a first time user to Mac, I found it extremely easy to use. Since then, I've rarely used my Windows machine and don't intend on making it my primary machine again.

Of course Microsoft copied Apple and lately they are doing it a lot with Windows 7 and their Appl-err i mean Microsoft Stores

My friend is a huge PC guy and he was like "look Win7 is amazing, def better than mac now" and just looking at its "taskbar" and the other new features I just looked at him and asked "When did Apple start making Windows software?"